CityOfAngels

I need to get my door painted but found a door shell from an E350 in the same color. Is it pretty straight-forward to do this swap? My car has keyless go and the replacement door does not. It has all the window and regulator in it already. I'll just have to replace handle to keyless go, and transfer internals to the new door.

WPOZZZ

Easier to paint your door as you won't need to swap the wires over AND you will retain the original door w/ VIN.

CityOfAngels

The door has a serial number on it that's tied to the VIN? I wasn't aware of that.

The seller said the internal panel just needs to transferred and that there are only a few wires to swap as the panel holds all the internals and speakers etc together.

The repaint at a good shop is around $1.1k. The replacement door is $400 + labor. They estimated around 3-4 hours @ $75 so it comes out to around $800ish.

WPOZZZ

There should be a sticker somewhere. I just looked at my E55 and didn't see it. My Lexus has VIN stickers all over the place. I believe the VIN was put on easily removable panels as the result of a Federal reg. to prevent thefts for chop shops. I do know that when you order an OE replacement fender, it will have a DOT-R sticker on it indicating replacement (saw it on my CLK after it was repaired).

CityOfAngels

Hmm I look if it has it. I know my car has these stickers and serial numbers engraved on every body panel in the car. It was some crazy expensive insurance thing the last owner had to make sure they could track parts if the car was stolen and parted out.

WPOZZZ

I just have a hard time fathoming $1100 to repaint a door. That seems really high as I usually pay $300-$500 per panel. However, even if it is $1100, I'd spend that extra $300. Why? Because if you sold the car and the prospective buyer had a PPI done on the car, they might catch the different door. Also, you need to make sure the replacement door you are looking at is an exact paint match. If not, you'll spend $$$ to paint and blend.